Three months after Andy Reid turned the pinnacle coach of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, the crew used a sixth-round draft decide (204th total) to accumulate Kansas State fullback Braden Wilson within the 2013 NFL Draft.
4 days later, the crew traded fourth-year cornerback Javier Arenas — a former second-round decide who had began 9 video games for Kansas Metropolis in 2012 — to the Arizona Cardinals for fullback Anthony Sherman, who had collected 114 yards from scrimmage on 14 touches throughout the earlier two seasons.
It’s honest to say that some observers have been puzzled. Kansas Metropolis had completed with the league’s worst report in 2012. But Reid (and new basic supervisor John Dorsey) have been expending helpful property to seek out… a fullback?
Wilson didn’t even make it to the ultimate roster cutdown. As an alternative, Sherman made the crew. By the top of the season — by which he gained a modest 158 yards from scrimmage on 20 touches, however was named a second-team All-Professional — we understood that for Reid, a fullback was an vital cog in his offensive machine. And to particular groups coordinator Dave Toub, Sherman was a necessary a part of each unit.
Sherman stayed with Kansas Metropolis for eight seasons, turning into a fan favourite as a blue-collar participant often called “The Sausage.” After his retirement in 2020, the Chiefs acquired veteran fullback Michael Burton, who stuffed the place admirably in each 2021 and 2022.
However in 2023, Kansas Metropolis went with out one. It was solely the third season of Reid’s 25-year head teaching profession by which he didn’t have at the very least one fullback on his roster.
That would change in 2024. Former UCLA operating again Carson Steele joined the crew as an undrafted free agent after the NFL Draft. At 6 ft and 228 kilos, he’s the largest operating again among the many seven on the roster. A local of Middle Grove, Indiana — a tiny unincorporated group south of Indianapolis — Steele bought work on the place throughout the crew’s offseason program. He’s even carrying Sherman’s outdated quantity: 42.
“Truthfully, I really feel actual good about all the pieces,” Steele informed Johnson County, Indiana’s Each day Journal. “They’ve bought me rolling out and in at operating again and at fullback. So long as I’m on the market, I’m cool with no matter. I really feel like I can slot in someplace.”
The 21-year-old began his faculty profession at Ball State — about an hour and a half up I-69 — earlier than spending his closing 12 months at UCLA. Working towards with NFL stars like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce felt like a dream.
“Man, it was simply superior to get that chance,” he mentioned of the exercises in Kansas Metropolis, “and having the ability to study from them. Every part was going so quick. You simply needed to deal with studying the brand new performs.”
And occasionally, on an sudden throw. Throughout one session, Mahomes flipped a behind-the-back go to the younger rookie.
“I nearly wasn’t even paying consideration,” recalled Steele, “after which he swung it behind his again. I used to be like, ‘Please don’t drop it. Please don’t drop it.’
“[Mahomes] yelled, ‘One-handed!’ He yelled it actual loud.”
As directed, Steele introduced it in along with his left hand.
Now again residence for the summer time break, the rookie is working with native gamers and longtime Middle Grove soccer coach Eric Moore.
“[We’re] simply giving him a spot to do all his drills [and] to carry weights,” defined Moore. “Simply supporting him. It’s important to keep targeted. Carson is across the younger children, and he additionally has an enormous playbook to study.
“It’s simply cool that he’s sharing it with everybody. He’s the group’s child.
“I’m simply terrible pleased with him. Nobody deserves a chance to be within the NFL greater than Carson Steele.”
